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FROM MARGOLAN TO DARKHURST - Part Two

4 months ago- posted by

A lot of people ask how much of me is in my characters. The answer is ‘a lot, and none at all’. None of my characters is an avatar for myself, nor are their beliefs necessarily mine. But to write a character and bring it to life, you’ve got to be able to relate to something about that character—hopes, dreams, experiences, etc.

So you take good points and bad points, perspectives and memories, and tweak or twist them into someone else that you, the writer, can relate to. This requires, I think, a fair amount of empathy—being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see the world through a perspective shaped by that person’s upbringing, experiences and beliefs. I believe that the more you do this in your writing, the more it rubs off in real life, which is a good thing. I couldn’t write about a character I found completely uninteresting or utterly so unlike myself that I couldn’t find those touchpoints. And as bad as some of my villains are, there are some kinds of bad guys I wouldn’t want to write because I don’t want to inhabit that headspace.

Like many writers, I rely on my subconscious to bubble up solutions and ideas. Sometimes, when I re-read things I wrote a while ago, I realize that I unintentionally wrote in insights to real-life issues, or I can see how my characters in prior books were influenced by things I was dealing with at the time. My husband often picks up on these things quicker than I do, but then it’s easier to see for someone else than for yourself.

When it comes to creating characters, I still believe in heroes. Not perfect ones who never make mistakes. Rather, I like people who do the right thing even when it’s hard or costs them something, who soldier on and muddle through when things look bleak, who never give up because they’re too damn stubborn to quit. I like heroes who fight for loyalty to their friends and family and to their true selves. I want someone to root for, even if that person makes mistakes. I don’t enjoy stories where the characters are all reprehensible. My heroes may be battered, bloodied, weary, heartsick, and damaged, but they do the best they can in service to what they believe to be right.

The new Darkhurst series (beginning with Scourge, which launched July 11 from Solaris Books) raises the curtain on a different epic fantasy world. The kingdom of Darkhurst is made up of 10 independent city-states of the Bakaran League, each managed for the king by its own Crown Princes. The city-states negotiate trade agreements with each other, which is a cutthroat process because the stakes are high, not only for the benefit of the merchants and tradespeople, but also for the fortunes of the Merchant Princes and Guild Masters who oversee the raw materials and the production of goods for trade. The kingdom and the League are corrupt, with assassination so common that hired killers sometimes wound or kill those who work for a powerful noble to 'send a message' or express their displeasure.

In the Darkhurst books, Corran, Rigan and Kell Valmonde are undertakers. They belong to the Undertaker Guild, but beyond that, they have no advantage of social position. Corran, Rigan and Kell don't know or care about the schemes of the nobility--until those rivalries and the dark magic that fuels them poses a threat to their lives and their friends and neighbors. When monsters kill people they love, the brothers become hunters and outlaws.

The first three epic fantasy series had main characters who fell from the upper levels of society and rose again from disgrace to save their worlds. In the Darkhurst series, our characters are tradesmen, a comfortable but tenuous existence which gets swept away as monsters and dark magic change their lives forever. They fall from the middle to the bottom, risking everything to do what they believe is right, even if it makes them fugitives and costs them dearly.

The workings of society--especially its trade and economics--also factor more in the plot of the Darkhurst series than in other series where the status quo disintegrated early in the books. As the Valmondes learn more about forbidden magic and monsters, they come to realize that little about their world is as it seems, or as most believe it to be. That's a fun concept to play with as a writer, and the secrets run deep and painful.

Most of all, I'm excited and grateful for the chance to bring a new world and a brand new set of characters to life. It's so much fun sharing the invisible people who live in my head with all of you!

FROM MARGOLAN TO DARKHURST - Part One

4 months ago- posted by

Ten years have passed since my first book, The Summoner, came into the world. It was the first book in my Chronicles of the Necromancer series, and it followed exiled prince Martris Drayke and smuggler and former mercenary Jonmarc Vahanian as they tried to first unseat the usurper king and then bring the kingdom of Margolan to peace and prosperity once more. Now Scourge kicks off a brand new epic fantasy series, and I couldn’t be more excited.

People often ask about my writing process and whether it changes for each book. I realize that if you ask a dozen writers how they write, you’ll get thirteen different answers. I start with an outline (publishers for some reason feel more comfortable parting with money if you’ve given them a solid outline). Even if it’s one we’re doing indie, I still start with a couple of page write-ups of the premise, characters, and plot overview. Then I’ll work out how many chapters I need based on the page count, and figure what has to happen in each chapter for the plot to get where it needs to go. We do it the way that works for us individually—so if you’re new to this, don’t worry about doing it my way or someone else’s way, do it your way and keep at it to work out the kinks.

The process for this does vary a bit series to series. Sometimes I get the world clearly in my head first, and then I have to figure out what kind of people and type of story go with that world. Usually, I get the characters first, and have to figure out what kind of world would make sense for their story. If it’s epic fantasy or steampunk, then I’ve got to dig into the time period, make sure to get the technology and details right. Even if my epic books aren’t set in our own world, they’re still somewhat based in real history for the battles or politics or level of technology. So Darkhurst is very loosely based on the Hanseatic League and the Italian city-states at the height of Venice and the Medici family. Machiavelli would have felt right at home.

Any chance I get to see real world settings are wonderful. I visit Charleston, South Carolina each year to scout locations and get ideas for more Deadly Curiosities stories. I go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area for the Iron & Blood/Storm and Fury Adventures tales. When I had the chance to go to the UK and Europe a few years back, I visited every castle, tomb, graveyard, ghost tour, medieval fortress and underground tunnel system I could pack into the time. My family is accustomed to going on graveyard tours while on vacation. So if you can see the location, go see it. If not, books, photos, Google Earth and maps are your friend.

Starting a new series is terrifying — and fun. It’s fun because I get to meet new people, at least in my own head. I enjoy getting to know the main characters and building up interesting secondary characters. I discover new ideas poking around the world or thinking through how the magic works. Building my own religions is fun, too. But it’s also scary, because you don’t know the reception a book, world, or character is going to get until you put it out there, and we writers are an insecure bunch. Don’t let that stop you. I knew someone who had three books written that I very much enjoyed reading in manuscript, but who was so afraid to fail she never tried to get them published. Thirty years later, those books have never come out and I still think of them from time to time because they were that good. They’re hidden in a drawer somewhere because of fear. Don’t do that. Take the risk.

Follow Gail Z. Martin on Twitter @GailZMartin and find her online at www.GailZMartin.com

GAIL Z. MARTIN RETURNS WITH AN EPIC NEW FANTASY SERIES!

6 months ago- posted by

Solaris is pleased to announce the return of Gail Z. Martin, author of the bestselling Chronicles of the Necromancer series, with a bold new fantasy epic: Scourge.

Tailor made for fans of action-packed fantasy, Scourge is the beginning of an exciting new adventure for Martin, and is the first of a new series entitled the Darkhurst novels.

Full to bursting with strange ideas and even stranger beasts, Scourge is the work of a fantasy author at the zenith of her powers, and is as bewitching and brilliant as fans have come to expect of Gail Z Martin.

Scourge is available for pre-order now, and is out from Solaris on 11 July 2017.

Read on for more about Scourge and click the links at the bottom of the page to pre-order your copy now…

Scourgeby Gail Z Martin

Corran, Rigan and Kell Valmonde have been orphaned – their father murdered by the city guard, their mother slain by monsters – and left to run the family business alone. Undertakers, gifted with ancient magic, they help the souls pass into the After. Their home city of Ravenwood is a battleground for decadent princes and powerful guilds, and for Lord Mayor Ellor Machison, who crouches at the heart of it all like a bloated spider. The city has long been beset by monsters, yet the city guards do nothing.

When the toll exacted by the monsters and brutal guards hits close to home and ghosts expose the hidden sins of powerful men, Corran, Rigan and Kell become targets in a deadly game and face a choice: obey the guild, or fight back and risk everything.

Terra Incognita

1 year ago- posted by Rob Power

I’m very excited to have a new epic fantasy series coming out from Solaris in 2017. I’ve been referring to it as the Epically-Epic Epic Fantasy That Cannot Yet Be Named (or E3F for short) because we haven’t released the book or series names or the concept. Book one is in the middle of edits, so we’re closing in on a final version, and I’ll be starting on book two soon.

E3F marks the third completely new epic fantasy world I’ve created. My goal in developing this series was to come up with something very different from what readers have experienced in my Chronicles of the Necromancer/Fallen Kings Cycle world or my Ascendant Kingdoms Saga world. Likewise, I wanted to go in a fresh direction with the characters, the magic and the approach to religion.

How does a writer return to familiar territory (in this case, the quasi-Medieval epic fantasy setting) and still take the reader somewhere they haven’t been before?

The answer is: look at history. While many kingdoms coexisted in the same time period in real life, they were hardly identical. Their unique history, culture, political structure, religion (and interpretation of that belief system), geography, economic situation and climate all produced very different settings. Dial forward or backward by a few years, and you see more permutations in the waging, winning and losing of wars, exploration, conquering and colonizing of new territory, the impact of plague or political instability, invasion, natural disaster, and other variables that all dramatically affected the nature of the kingdoms, the choices of those in positions of power, and the stressors on the common people.

Those factors are the ‘ingredients’ I take into consideration as I’m building a new epic fantasy world. They determine what day-to-day life is like in the kingdom and surrounding territory, the fears and expectations of the powerful and the commoners, the decisions to be made and the ripple effects of those decisions. Are we coming off several years of stability and prosperity, or a decade of war, famine, poor harvests and plague? Is the king’s position secure, or are there rivals and threats both foreign and domestic? Are the army and the mages supportive of the king, or is treachery afoot? And what big incident is going to upset the status quo and start the plot ball rolling for the action in the book?

In the Chronicles series, the ‘big incident’ was the assassination of the royal family and the rise of Jared the Usurper. In the Ascendant Kingdoms series, it was the night of the Cataclysm, when the world burned and magic failed. In E3F, the incident that sets events in motion isn’t nearly as huge and important, but the repercussions grow into actions that change the course of history, very much in the tradition of the rhyme about how a kingdom was lost for want of a nail.

I can’t say much about the characters in E3F yet, but I will let slip that they’re not royals or nobility. They’re regular people, just trying to get through the day, until a sequence of events magnifies the consequences of their actions. Remember, ‘may you live in interesting times’ is actually a curse.

Stay tuned! We’ll be revealing more about the new series as we get closer to the summer launch!

My Days of the Dead blog tour runs through October 31 with brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories, interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, I’ll be including extra excerpt links for my stories and for books by author friends of mine. You’ve got to visit the participating sites to get the goodies, just like Trick or Treat! Get all the details about my Days of the Dead blog tour here.

Finally, let me give a shout-out for #HoldOnToTheLight-100+ Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors blogging about their personal struggles with depression, PTSD, anxiety, suicide and self-harm, candid posts by some of your favorite authors on how mental health issues have impacted their lives and books. Read the stories, share the stories, change a life. Find out more at the official Hold On To The Light website.

Returning to the Winter Kingdoms

1 year ago- posted by Rob Power

How does it feel to come back to writing in my Chronicles of the Necromancer series?

The short answer is: it's like coming home.

It's been five years since The Dread, the sixth novel in my Chronicles of the Necromancer/Fallen Kings Cycle series set in Margolan, one of the Winter Kingdoms. That series, which began with The Summoner and The Blood King, charted the story of Tris Drayke, the second son of King Bricen. When Tris's half-brother, Jared, kills the king and the rest of their family in a coup, Tris and a few friends barely escape with their lives.

And as Tris struggles to learn how to control his newly-risen power as a necromancer, he needs a guide and a bodyguard to get to safety and elude the assassins Jared's sent after him.

Jonmarc Vahanian is the perfect choice, and he's got his own reasons for wanting vengeance on Foor Arontala, the blood mage behind Jared's rise to power.

Tris Drayke might be the main character in the Chronicles series, but Jonmarc is a close second, and Tris owes his life and his rise to the throne to Jonmarc's reckless bravery and insolent loyalty. By the end of the story arc, Tris and Jonmarc are close as brothers, and it's clear their fates are inextricably tied together. It's Tris's saga, and the story of his rise from exile and fledgling mage to king and powerful necromancer is the focus of the action. But even so, Jonmarc's redemption from bitter smuggler with a dark past to brigand lord and the most fearsome warrior of his generation runs in parallel, since neither story could happen without the other.

In Dark Haven and Dark Lady's Chosen, readers got more glimpses of Jonmarc's background. Jonmarc's actions and choices not only affect his own life and the lives around him; but also the fate of the Winter Kingdoms. In The Sworn and The Dread, as Tris battles foreign invaders and a powerful dark mage, Jonmarc steps into the role of Queen's Champion in neighboring Principality, risking his life to keep events from sending the seven kingdoms into a disastrous war, and we discover a few more tidbits about the bloody, painful past he has tried so hard to leave behind him.

I didn't get to tell Jonmarc's full story in those books because Tris was the main character. But I'd always wanted to write Jonmarc's books, because his back story was vivid in my mind. So I started to bring out short stories - the Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures--that are really serialized novels about what really happened to craft the Lord of Dark Haven and the fearsome fighter we saw in the books.

Solaris, publisher of the Chronicles of the Necromancer, asked to do a collection of the first ten stories as well as an exclusive eleventh one written especially for The Shadowed Path. Of course, I said 'yes'.

The Shadowed Path starts at the beginning of the events that shape Jonmarc Vahanian and forge his future. The stories begin fourteen years before The Summoner, in a small fishing village in the Borderlands area of Margolan, where a fifteen year-old blacksmith's son has no idea his actions will someday influence the rise and fall of kingdoms.

If you've read the Chronicles of the Necromancer and the Fallen Kings Cycle, you'll recognize many of the people in The Shadowed Path. Here, you'll meet them under different circumstances, see them through a different lens. I've had a blast writing about these secondary characters in the short stories, many of whom take on a much larger presence than they had in the books.

If you've read the novels, then reading The Shadowed Path will cause some deja vu, but you'll find plenty of little Easter Eggs of tidbits that make things in the novel mean so much more. And if you haven't read the novels, starting with The Shadowed Path puts you at the very beginning of the story, so it's a win either way!

The Shadowed Path

Released
14 June 2016

These are the untold tales of Jonmarc Vahanian, hero of Gail Z. Martin’s best-selling Chronicles of the Necromancer series.

Jonmarc Vahanian was just a blacksmith’s son in a small fishing village before raiders killed his family. Wounded and left for dead in the attack, Jonmarc tries to rebuild his life. But when a dangerous bargain with a shadowy stranger goes wrong, Jonmarc finds himself on the run, with nothing ahead but vengeance, and nothing behind him but blood.

Soldier. Fight slave. Smuggler. Warrior. Brigand lord. If you’ve met Jonmarc Vahanian in the Chronicles of the Necromancer and Fallen Kings Cycle books, you don’t really know him until you walk in his footsteps. This is the first segment of his journey.

Vendetta

Released
29 December 2015

Someone very powerful is trying to destroy Sorren and everyone he cares about. That puts Cassidy, Teag and Trifles and Folly in the cross-hairs, against an unknown enemy with strong magic and significant resources.

Sorren has spent centuries shutting down the plans of powerful immortals, dark warlocks and supernatural creatures, and now he’s got to figure out which of those many enemies is out to get him before they pick off his friends one by one and come after him to finish an immortal vendetta.

Praise for Deadly Curiosities

“Martin weaves together fact, fiction, and the supernatural to create a realistic underworld for modern Charleston.” -Publishers Weekly

“Martin is clearly in her element when bringing the ghosts of Charleston to life. Cassidy’s investigation is peppered with the stories of pirates and smugglers whose deaths are tied to the evil threatening the city. I’ll admit, I’m a big fan of ghost stories and I loved the touch of character Martin gave to her haunts.” -Fiction Vortex

Rudolf and Santa charge at each other across No Elf’s Land. The clash with an almighty roar, and time seems to slow. Teary-eyed elves watch Claus and Rudolf wrestle in the filthy snow. Rudolf nips at Santa’s fingers. Claus rams a half-eaten mince pie in Rudolf’s ear.

The two battle for what seems like hours, until Santa steps on an upturned piece of Lego and cries out in agony. Rudolf moves in for the coup de grace but becomes entangled in a cluster of sellotape and crashes to the ground.

And with that, the two titans, both injured, retreat into the night. Christmas is close now, and the Santa Wars threaten all...

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Hey you - fancy bagging a copy of Gail Z Martin's brand new urban fantasy adventure Vendetta, the next instalment of the Deadly Curiosities series? Of course you do!

The Rebellion Advent Calendar: Day Twenty-One

1 year ago- posted by Rob Power

Advent, day twenty one, and the rebels are in high spirits. In the wake of Mrs Claus’s bountiful peace offering, the Rudolfite troops feast on the Ham of Santa.

The red-nosed reindeer moves among his troops, sharing meat and mead with them. There are rumours that the Santa War could be over by Christmas, that Claus the Mighty is considering a ceasefire. There is hope among elf and reindeer alike.

But far across the devastation of No Elf’s Land, there is a rumbling in the Claus compound. The Mighty One has awoken with a thunderous hangover, and muggy-headed elves are coming to their senses everywhere. Mrs Claus tries to explain her treachery, but Santa is having none of it.

He bellows to the blinking elves.

‘Awake, elves! We have been deceived! My honour and my ham are at stake - to battle!’

Mrs Claus weeps. Her plan has backfired. Claus will not be denied his war...

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Hello Adventers! If you’ve stuck with us through this slightly torturous advent story, well done you. As a reward, here are two mighty fine Gail Z Martin ebooks at a spectacular, limited-time only price of only 99p! We know, amazing right?

Cursed Trinkets, Haunted Objects and Deadly Curios

2 years ago- posted by Rob Power

The ever-brilliant Gail Z Martin talks exploring hidden histories in antique shops - and the effects such searching has on her fiction...

For me, going into an antique store has always felt like Indiana Jones opening up the tomb of the pharaohs.

You never know what you’re going to find—or what might find you. Every object in that store once belonged to someone else and witnessed a part of that person’s life. That vase in the corner was once a wedding present. The people in those old sepia-toned photographs are unknown now, but they were part of someone’s family. The sterling silver snuff box or flask was part of a long-ago man-about-town’s accoutrements.

Each piece has a secret story. Every one of those items witnessed someone’s history, their joys and sorrows, accomplishments and failures. Some of those antiques might have even been part of history—carried into battle with a soldier, tucked away in an airman’s jacket, carefully packed in a carpet bag when a family emigrated. Many of the pieces were expensive or rare at the time they were purchased. Perhaps they were an object of desire, envy, obsession. All those tales to tell, all those secrets to reveal—locked in silence because while it’s true that dead men tell no tales, neither do their treasured objects.

I spent plenty of time at antique shops, flea markets and cemeteries as a kid. (Maybe that explains a lot, come to think of it.) For me, they always served as amazing story prompts. My dad could spent most of an afternoon in one curio store or another, brushing the dust off of odd finds, chatting up the store owner, digging through baskets, bins and piles to find a treasure.

I was bored, and boredom begets inventing diversions. So I would wander around, making up stories about the pieces I saw, imagining the exciting lives of their prior owners, figuring out for myself how the item came to be in the store. My imaginings included spies, pirates, cat burglars, jewel thieves, jaded mistresses and fancy gentlemen, down-at-the-heels aristocrats, exiled nobility and financially embarrassed robber barons. That odd necklace over there? Cursed—and I’d spin a tale that went into all the gory details. That music box? Haunted. Those strange masks from somewhere exotic—most definitely magical.

Of course, I knew the truth was more prosaic. Those antique shops had acquired their treasures from the estate sales of old people who died or went into nursing homes, or from the overstuffed houses of middle aged people downsizing to move to a Florida condo. Yard sales and consignment, lost luggage and abandoned storage units probably accounted for most of the other pieces. But even if the pieces weren’t really cursed or magical, they were haunted, in the sense that they were a touchstone to memories of people now dead.

Cleaning out my dad’s home when he passed away was a direct inspiration for the first Deadly Curiosities novel, and continues to inspire Vendetta and most of the Deadly Curiosities Adventures short stories. Some of the objects he collected were interesting, others were odd, but there were several that were downright spooky. In fact, there were a couple of pieces that clairvoyant friends advised me to get rid of, which was strange since they had never been to the house, had seen no photos, and shouldn’t have known the objects existed. I took their warnings seriously. Mostly, I felt the weight of time as I cleaned out my parents’ home and my father’s collections. Many of the pieces he treasured were old by the time he bought them, passed from one collector to another over decades, or even centuries. I wanted to hear their stories—except for a few that I thought might not let me sleep well at night if I learned their secrets.

That’s really where the inspiration for Trifles and Folly—the antique and curio store owned by my main character, Cassidy Kincaide—came from for the Deadly Curiosities series. Except that I took it a step farther—the items weren’t just sometimes haunted, magical or cursed. That was just the beginning. Cassidy and Teag and Sorren had a secret mission—to get dangerous magical items off the market and out of the wrong hands.

Cassidy is a psychometric—she can read the history and magic of objects by touch. Not only does that clue her in to dangerous items, but it also provides an interesting defensive magic by enabling her to draw on the memories and emotions stored in old objects. Teag has Weaver magic, the ability to weave magic into fabrics and to weave data streams to hack into anything and find hidden information. And Sorren is a nearly six hundred year-old vampire who has been pledged for centuries to the Alliance, a covert group of mortals and immortals who protect the world by getting rid of cursed and dangerously magical objects.

And of course, the Deadly Curiosities series takes place in Charleston, South Carolina—one of the prettiest, most visited and most haunted cities in the United States. Charleston is a gracious city with a bloody past where propriety and scandal go hand-in-hand, and where secrets, blood ties and social connections are the only currency that really matters.

I’m looking forward to taking readers back to Charleston and to Trifles and Folly in Vendetta, coming in December. In the meantime, check out the Deadly Curiosities series of short stories on Kindle/Kobo/Nook that provide additional adventures before, around and after the books.

Just be sure to leave the lights on!

Gail's Days of the Dead blog tour runs through October 31 with never-before-seen cover art, brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories, interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, she'll be including extra excerpt links from her stories and for books by author friends.

I'm thrilled to be wearing a new author 'hat' with the launch of Iron & Blood, the new Steampunk novel co-authored with my husband, Larry N. Martin. Like the urban fantasy setting of Deadly Curiosities, Iron & Blood's Steampunk setting is a real departure from my epic fantasy world of the Winter Kingdoms in the Chronicles of the Necromancer.

The truth is, I love changing up worlds, series, characters and sub-genres because it keeps everything fresh and exciting. I've been asked whether switching worlds gets confusing or whether it's jarring adjusting to the very different tone required from one series to another. Actually, I find those changes a lot of fun, and it's a challenge for me as an author and for Larry and me as an author team, to make the adjustment from series to series.

Not only is Iron & Blood a change of sub-genre, it's also the first time Larry and I have co-authored a series. Larry has been very involved behind the scenes for a long time, and in the last four years, has come into working with me full-time on the books, short stories and anthologies. It really does take two to produce three books a year, monthly ebook short fiction and original stories for numerous anthologies a year! And while Larry has been active editing and brainstorming and proofreading on books before Iron & Blood, this series is the first in which he was part of the worldbuilding, character development and plot generation from the very beginning. It's a very exciting approach and we're having a lot of fun with it.

So back to changing author hats. Epic fantasy is nearly always written in third person, and the grand sweep of the story as well as the large cast of characters is what makes it 'epic.' I love the complicated plots and the concurrent storylines as multiple viewpoint characters' lives and journeys intertwine. Third person viewpoint lets the reader into the mind of several key characters, as well as allowing for scene-setting narration, necessary (sparingly) since you're introducing readers to a world that doesn't exist in our reality.

Urban fantasy, on the other hand, is often told from a first-person perspective. Since it's modern-day, the vocabulary is very different, the tone can veer into snarkiness from time to time, and the references to pop culture and real history help to anchor the story in our own world. Of course with first-person Point of View (POV), the reader can only know what the main character knows. That's great for maintaining the mystery around key plot elements, but it also means that as an author, I have to figure out how to get one main character positioned to personally encounter everything important. Information that can easily be introduced in a third-person book by shifting to another POV character must be shared with the main character, and therefore the reader, either by having that POV character experience it or hear about it second-hand. All these differences keep me on my toes!

Iron and Blood is also told from a third-person perspective, with multiple viewpoint characters. But because it's Steampunk, it's set in the Victorian Era, which dictates a lot of things about how the plot unfolds and how the characters interact with their world. The Victorians had strict social etiquette and a worldview often different from our own. In order for Iron & Blood to have the feel of its times, that means observing some restrictions and conventions that today we would find irrelevant. And while Iron & Blood is alternative history, it's still got a lot of connection to real history, meaning that research is part of the equation. Research is also where we find some of the cool facts that become key plot points. Reality is always stranger than fiction! Needing to work around those constraints makes plotting more challenging--and fun--because our goal is to write a book that feels authentic to its period while being action-packed and being very accessible and relatable to modern readers.

I'm looking forward to writing more books in all three sub-genres and continuing the co-writing with Larry. There are lots of stories yet to be told!

Iron & Blood

Released
2 July 2015

New Pittsburgh in 1898, a crucible of invention and intrigue, the hub of American industry at the height of its steam-driven power. Born from the ashes of devastating fire, flood and earthquake, New Pittsburgh is ruled by the shadow government of The Oligarchy.

In the abandoned mine tunnels beneath the city, supernatural creatures hide from the light, emerging to feed in the smoky city known as 'hell with the lid off.' Jake Desmet and Rick Brand, heirs to the Brand & Desmet Import Company, travel the world to secure treasures and unusual items for the collections of wealthy patrons, accompanied by Jake's cousin, Veronique 'Nicki' LeClercq .

Smuggling a small package as a favor for a Polish witch should have been easy. But when hired killers come after Jake and a Ripper-style killer leaves the city awash in blood, Jake, Rick and Nicki realize that dark magic, vampire power struggles and industrial sabotage are just a prelude to a bigger plot that threatens New Pittsburgh and the world. Stopping that plot will require every ounce of Jake's courage, every bit of Rick's cunning, every scintilla of Nicki's bravura and all the steam-powered innovation imaginable.

Gail Z. Martin returns to Solaris Books for the start of a brand new, epic adventure set in the alternative universe of the Victorian streets of New Pittsburgh. Writing for the first time with her husband Larry N. Martin, the two combine Gail Z. Martin’s epic world building and intricate character development, with a high-octane dose of steam fuelled adventure...

“If you're looking for Steampunk adventure that's smart, daring and will leave you asking for more, do yourself a favor and read Iron and Blood.” -R. S. Belcher, author of The Six-Gun Tarot

Deadly Curiosities

Gail Z Martin

From the best-selling author of The Chronicles of Necromancer Gail Z Martin, we bring you an original new urban fantasy series:

Welcome to Trifles & Folly, an antique and curio shop with a dark secret.

Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670 - acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items. It's the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history. Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500-year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market. When mundane antiques suddenly become magically malicious, it's time for Cassidy and Sorren to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up…

Why the critics loved it:

“Martin weaves together fact, fiction, and the supernatural to create a realistic underworld for modern Charleston, S.C” – Publishers Weekly

“Familiar, accessible, and enjoyable, Deadly Curiosities is the kind of book to have serious crossover appeal for urban fantasy and horror readers alike.” – Beauty in Ruins

“I found myself emotionally invested in the outcome of each one, even the dog, and when they were facing the badest, strongest, entity, I was so nervous, I had butterflies in my stomach worried over what would happen to them. Deadly Curiosities is a great combination of paranormal and mystery…” – Much Loved Books

Why we love it:

A spooky new urban fantasy for fans of Warehouse 13 and Buff the Vampire Slayer: Deadly Curiosities effortlessly demonstrates Martin’s incredible world building skills in a can’t-put-down tale of paranormal fantasy, set against the highly original setting of modern-day Charleston. With Deadly Curiosities 2 on the way for early 2016 now’s a great time join Cassidy and her team.

Read it? Loved it! Try this:

Jordan helps kids on the run find their way back home. He’s good at that. He should be – he’s a runaway himself.

Sometimes he helps the kids in other, stranger, ways. He looks like a regular teenager, but he’s not. He acts like he’s not exactly human, but he is. He treads the line between mundane reality and the world of the supernatural.

Desdaemona also knows the non-human world far too well. She tracks Jordan down and enlists his aid in searching for her lost sister Fay, who did a Very Bad Thing involving an immortal. This may be a mistake – for both of them. Too many people are interested now, and some of them are not people at all.

Gail Z Martin

Gail Zehner Martin was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. After nearly 20 years as a marketing executive for corporations and non-profit organizations, she started her own consulting firm, Dream Spinner Communications. She also writes feature articles on a variety of topics for regional and national magazines. In addition to writing and consulting, Gail teaches public relations writing and public speaking for the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. She is married and has three children, a Himalayan cat and a golden retriever.

Days of the Dead blog tour 2014: Gail Z. Martin on Hiding Under the Covers

3 years ago- posted by

Hiding Under the Covers

By Gail Z. Martin

I’ve always liked ghost stories. Well, let’s say that I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with ghost stories. I love them when it’s daylight and the lights are on. I’m not so keen on them in the dark.

As a kid, I remember being scared of some of the oddest stuff. There was a children’s encyclopedia that had an entry on “hallucinations” and the drawing accompanying the definition gave me nightmares for a week—no idea why.

Even so, I kept coming back to re-runs of shows like The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the monster movies that used to run on Saturday afternoon TV. And I loved any book I could get my hands on that included magic, witches, ghosts, and the supernatural. One of my favorite books in middle school was Jane-Emily about a girl being haunted by the ghost of her vindictive cousin.

I remember watching the old monster movie Them about giant radioactive ants destroying the world. I was eating popcorn and watching the movie on TV alone in the dark. All of a sudden, a huge beast with black shaggy fur and a hideous, green-eyed gorilla face jumped out at me from behind the couch. I think in that case, my dad got more than he bargained for because even after he took off the mask and the fur coat, I wouldn’t stop screaming until every light in the house was on. #ParentingFail

As a kid, cemeteries were favorite places. My mom was a teacher and had to stay late at school to grade papers. When I was 10 or 11, she would let me go up the block and wander around the old historic cemetery (times were different then). It’s a beautiful place with a lot of historic graves, and I used to pass the time by reading the epitaphs and making up stories about the people. In high school, I planned the family vacation to make sure we hit Salem, Massachusetts so we could go to all the witch trial museums, and some of the old cemeteries.

Nowadays, I absolutely love going on ghost tours when I visit a city. Rome, London, Dublin, New Orleans, Charleston, and more—it’s always on the itinerary. I’ve dragged my family through the Capuchin crypts in Rome where the monks used human bones for decorating, and on tours of cemeteries in several countries.

I’m more a fan of ghost/suspense types of scary movies. I don’t do slasher/gore flicks. But I do love something like The Woman in Black and Rose Red that have a good, creepy vibe. When it comes to books, quite a bit of what I read includes vampires, magic, ghosts and the supernatural, although it tends to skirt being outright horror. I enjoy Stephen King’s stuff, but I have to admit that after I read IT I kept the lights on!

My Days of the Dead blog tour runs through October 31 with never-before-seen cover art, brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories, interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, I’ll be including extra excerpt links for stories and books by author friends of mine. And, a special 50% off discount from Double-Dragon ebooks! You’ve got to visit the participating sites to get the goodies, just like Trick or Treat! Details here: www. AscendantKingdoms.com

Trick or Treat: Enjoy an excerpt from Buttons, the short story that led to the Deadly Curiosities book series here.

And a bonus excerpt from Collector, one of my Deadly Curiosities Adventures short stories here.

Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin is available now in the UK, US and as a DRM-free eBook from the Rebellion Store.

Fiction Vortex: “Martin is clearly in her element when bringing the ghosts of Charleston to life. Cassidy’s investigation is peppered with the stories of pirates and smugglers whose deaths are tied to the evil threatening the city. I’ll admit, I’m a big fan of ghost stories and I loved the touch of character Martin gave to her haunts.”

She hearts books: “This is one of those books you just can't put down until you're finished reading.”

The Book Adventures: “The world-building, the setting, the characters, the relationships have depths to them that make this a complex and very interesting urban fantasy novel.”

Not yet read: “Gail Z. Martin does an excellent job painting vivid scenes, her suspense and fight scenes are amazing and her characters charming. I can’t wait for more!”

Wicked Scribe: “The villains are delightfully evil, the crimes are horrific and you get pulled into the motivation to find and stop this paranormal killer before things get even worse.”

I smell sheep: “The characters are wonderful making me want to get to know them and kept me turning the pages to find out just what was happening and where it would all end up.”

Much loved books: “I found myself emotionally invested in the outcome of each one, even the dog, and when they were facing the badest, strongest, entity, I was so nervous, I had butterflies in my stomach worried over what would happen to them. Deadly Curiosities is a great combination of paranormal and mystery…”

Gizmo’s Reviews: “If you like kick ass action at every turn, and the unknown whether the characters will all survive or not, then please read Deadly Curiosities and give the finger to publishers who say that UF is dead and gone.”

A Bibliophile’s Reverie: “This novel felt like a shiny twist between Warehouse 13 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” 4/5 stars

Love Fantasy More: “If you’re looking for a nice summer ghost mystery, Deadly Curiosities is a great book for you. And if you like procedural type books, you may even love it more than I did!”

Elder Park BookReviews: “the characters were rich and fleshed out and [there was] plenty of new takes on supernatural powers to keep this novel innovative.”

Caffeinated BookReviewer: “An old school urban fantasy with a Warehouse 13 vibe, this tale was action packed. Filled with magic, supernatural creatures and possessed objects. I quickly consumed this and look forward to reading more.”

Bibliosanctum: “I do hope she has plans to continue expanding Cassidy’s story as well, because this was a lot of fun. I would return to Charleston and Trifles & Folly in a heartbeat.”

The Book Adventures: “A fast-paced, suspenseful and sometimes creepy story, this book brings paranormal closer to horror and further from fantasy, and was a welcome change from the tropes that pervade the sub-genre.”

Missing Volume: “Good world building and the huge plus for me is there is no romance building the background between the characters. I'll be looking for more books in this series.”

Ponderings of Psyche: “Dark Curiosities brought up fresh ideas and mixed it with the old ones, making a perfect blend of read that will certainly not fail the expectations of the readers of urban fantasy.”

Dab of Darkness: “This was a fast-paced urban fantasy with a twist: antiques. So, lots of history was tossed into the mix, and I loved it.”

Mixed Book Bag: “Deadly Curiosities has just the right blend of paranormal and mystery and a great start to a new series.”

Doctor’s Notes: “The book was fast paced so I flew through it with ease and was fully invested in it.”

Tome Tender: “Deadly Curiosities is a fun, unique and interesting story with marvellous possibilities for what might come next.”

Are you a reviewer or blogger interested in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror or Alternative YA & Children's Fiction? If you'd like to receive advance title information and review copies, as well as opportunities for guest blogs and interviews with our authors contact us at press@rebellion.co.uk. Please include information about the site or publication you review for, any genre preferences and your preferred contact name and email.

Deadly Curiosities

Released
25 June 2014

The author of the best-selling Chronicles of the Necromancer, Gail Z. Martin, returns with an exciting and brand new urban fantasy series.

Deadly Curiosities is an exceptional return for Martin, author of the perennially best-selling The Summoner. One of the world’s leading female authors of fantasy, Martin will be sure to pick up new readers with this urban fantasy tale of the American South.

Welcome to Trifles & Folly, an antique and curio shop with a dark secret. Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670 – acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items. It’s the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history.

Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500-year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market. When mundane antiques suddenly become magically malicious, it’s time for Cassidy and Sorren to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up.

Bridging Old and New by Gail Z. Martin

3 years ago- posted by

Why write an urban fantasy series after three successful epic fantasy series? Because it’s fun.(P.S. That’s the same reason I’ll be writing a steampunk series for 2015, too.)

Truth is, a lot of the same interests run between my epic and urban fantasy. Scratch the surface, and find a history major and museum geek.

Plunk me down in a major city with time to kill, and I’ll find the museums. (Heck, I’ll find them in a minor city if you give me time.) And yes, I read the plaques underneath the objects, even when I’ve got the audio tour. I love discovering cool old stuff, weird objects, creepy funeral customs, and pretty things from the past.

In Deadly Curiosities, my main character Cassidy can read the history and strong memories/magic imprinted on an object. I don’t claim that ability, but I do have a wild imagination, and more often than not, I can close my eyes and feel the past around me. (Note: I avoid doing that when touring places like the Tower of London.)

While Deadly Curiosities happens in modern-day Charleston, SC, it’s a storyline steeped in the past. “Buttons” was the short story I wrote for Solaris’s award-winning Magic: The Esoteric and Arcane anthology (and reprinted this year in the British Fantasy Society’s Unexpected Journeys anthology). It was a contemporary story with the characters you’ll meet in the novel. But before that, I had written short stories in the Deadly Curiosities world spanning the 1500’s and 1700’s for other anthologies.

Sorren, my nearly six hundred year-old vampire, is the thread of continuity through all the stories. In Vanities (originally published in the British Fantasy Society’s The Bitten Word), we see Sorren’s first job for the Alliance, battling a demon in Antwerp in 1565. I’ve written two other stand-alone short stories that follow up on Vanities: Wild Hunt and Dark Legacy, that show more of Sorren’s origins, tell the story of his maker, Alard, and hint at the creation of the Alliance.

The very first story about Trifles and Folly, the antique shop in Deadly Curiosities, appeared in the Rum and Runestones anthology and was set in the 1770’s, just before the American Revolution. The anthology prompt required pirates and magic, which is what Steer a Pale Course delivers. That story was popular enough to get me invited back to the Spells and Swashbucklers anthology, with The Low Road. Then Marie O’Regan tapped me for The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women, and Among the Shoals Forever was born.

Sorren’s past is Old World—Europe and old gods and ancient monsters. His maker battled Viking warriors and gained the help of a Norse Seior. A hundred years later, Sorren travels to Charleston to set up Trifles and Folly in 1663, forging a long-standing arrangement with one of Cassidy’s ancestors.

I know that Europe has phone booths older than anything we’ve got here in the States, but Charleston is one of our oldest cities. Unlike New Orleans, Charleston hasn’t been heavily used for urban fantasy, which made it a fresh location with much of the same charm and danger. Charleston, like New Orleans, has a very prominent European connection, and when you walk its cobblestone streets, you can feel in your bones the truth of Faulkner’s quote: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”

As in New Orleans, the younger sons of European gentry came to Charleston to make their way. Men with service to the crown received land grants and set up sprawling plantations. Fortunes were won and lost. And while Charleston is known as the “Holy City” for its hundreds of churches, beneath that piety ran rivers of blood in brothels, duels and slavery.

Look beyond the beautiful mansions and gardens heavy with bougainvillea, Spanish moss and gardenia, and you’ll find the tragedy of the slave trade. Charleston was part of the “Triangle Trade” with the Caribbean—molasses, rum and slaves. By some accounts, the majority of slaves in the U.S. came through Charleston Harbor. Those slaves brought their beliefs with them, religions that melded and changed to create the Voodoo of New Orleans and the Hoodoo of the Lowcountry. Charleston’s past rests uneasily, not far below the surface.

While New Orleans has always embraced its wild side, Charleston opted for repressed propriety. But like a convention of accountants in Las Vegas, even the proper folks have to let loose sometime, and Charleston’s back alleys were the place for indulgence. Duels were fought. Pirates were by turn welcomed and shunned in Charleston depending on the benefit to the city’s fathers. Blackbeard himself blockaded the city in 1718. The city’s history is full bad boys and wild girls.

I’m very excited about Deadly Curiosities and the chance to spin tales about haunted objects, dark magical items and cursed heirlooms. And I’m thrilled to be working on the second book in the Deadly Curiosities series for 2015 with even more thrills and chills.

If you want more of Cassidy, Sorren and Teag right away, check out my free novella on Wattpad.com: The Final Death. Coffin Box and Wicked Dreams also continue the adventures of Cassidy and her team, and you can find them with my other ebook short stories on Kindle, Kobo and Nook.

Cassidy and crew will be turning up in a couple more anthologies this year. Retribution, an all-new Deadly Curiosities adventure, is featured in the Athena’s Daughters anthology by Silence in the Library Publishing. The Restless Dead will be in the Realms of Imagination anthology from Dark Oak Books.

So the next time you pick up that family heirloom, pay attention if your fingers tingle or you catch a glimpse of something that isn’t there. Cassidy can tell you, the past may be gone, but it doesn’t stay buried.

I’ll be celebrating the launch of Deadly Curiosities the whole week of June 22-29 with more than 30 different guest blog posts, a Facebook launch party featuring prizes, guest authors and surprises, podcasts, three different excerpts, a Reddit give-away/AskMeAnything and a Goodreads party/give-away. Get all the details at www.DeadlyCuriosities.com, follow me on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms or on Twitter @GailZMartin!

I’ll be signing in major cities across the U.S. and in England, Wales and Scotland this summer—the full book tour schedule is on my website, so please stop by and say hello!

About the AuthorGail Z. Martin writes epic and urban fantasy, steampunk and short stories. She is the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series, the Fallen Kings Cycle series and the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga series of epic fantasy books, as well as the Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy world and coming in 2015, Iron and Blood, a Steampunk novel, co-written with Larry N. Martin. Gail is a frequently contributor to US and UK anthologies. She also writes two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures.

The past bites: what has Deadly Curiosities author Gail Z. Martin been up to?

3 years ago- posted by

Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin is one of our big release this summer - a dark urban fantasy with a dark of magic and a smidgeon of the arcane. Gail is one of our bestsellers at Solaris and it's a delight to welcome her back to the fold...

Cassidy Kincaide owns Trifles & Folly, an antique/curio store and high-end pawn shop in Charleston, South Carolina that is more than what it seems. Dangerous magical and supernatural items sometimes find their way into mortal hands or onto the market, and Cassidy is part of a shadowy Alliance of mortals and mages whose job it is to take those deadly curiosities out of circulation.

Welcome to Trifles & Folly, an antique and curio shop with a dark secret. Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670—acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items. It’s the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history. Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500 year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market. When mundane antiques suddenly become magically malicious, it’s time for Cassidy and Sorren to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up

So that's Deadly Curiosities, but what has Gail been up to?

Last week she appeared over on Reddit for an AMA where she answered, well, anything - including a question about why we appear to be obsessed with the undead...I've read a bunch of theories ... everything from being a reaction to an economic recession to a way of dealing with global uncertainty and rapid culture change. Maybe. I don't know. I have liked vampires since I was about 5 years old and watched the old Dark Shadows soap opera back in the early 1960s. (Not sure why my mom let me, but hey, it shaped my life!) I was totally hooked. I even dictated a story for my grandmother to write down (I couldn't spell yet) about a vampire. I playacted vampires (seriously--some kids made a race car out of a big cardboard box. I made a coffin and then practiced sitting up with great style.) I wouldn't say that I'm any more concerned about death/dying/afterlife than anyone else. I have my beliefs, but I'm not in a hurry to test them out. I didn't have any really early childhood trauma of losing someone. I just always thought that ghosts, vampires, werewolves and magic were super cool, and that's what I liked to read/watch so it's what I wanted to write. But you're right--the undead certainly do show up in my writing!

She's written a blog post for SFX magazine about how the book was written in the wake of her father's death and features a great passion for the past, as well as a love of its setting - the American city of Charleston (our PR guy and history nerd, Mike, just got all excited because Charleston was founded in 1670 as 'Charles Towne' in honour of King Charles II).

She also talked to Bull Spec about her use of language and how even fitting words can lift a reader right out of the story:There are a couple of etymology web sites that have become bookmarks on my computer because I am frequently checking to see when a word or phrase was first used, and how it was used. For example, people have been puking since the Middle Ages, but they didn’t barf until recently. And while they have been pissing for hundreds of years, it’s only in the last few decades that anyone has been pissed off.

The reviews have already started to trickle in too over on Goodreads and Bibliophile's Diary gave it a five out of five, adding:No spoilers guys, but I really enjoyed the plot and how the story turned out. Along with the great setting the magic is fascinating. There are magics we’ve all heard of, such as Cassidy’s ability to read objects she touched, but then there were ones I was unfamiliar with such as Weaver magic and the system created for it. Can we also talk about the Voudon (Voodoo) in the novel? I have such a love for that particular character, Lucinda, you wouldn’t believe. I really wanted more about that side of the world, I’m hoping we see more about the Voudon or local magic in future books.

But if you can't wait, Gail is offering an online multi-part novella FOR FREE that's set in the same universe. The Final Death is a prequel to Deadly Curiosities and here's the blurb:

Vampires, vengeful ghosts and Voodoo are all in a day's work for Cassidy Kincaide, owner of Trifles and Folly, an antique and curio store in historic, haunted Charleston, SC whose real mission is to get dangerous magical objects off the market and out of the wrong hands. When developers disturb old graves, Cassidy and her team land in the middle of big trouble as the restless dead return to finish old business and feast on the blood of the living. A novella in 5 parts--watch for new additions!